RWBY: Rising Guardians
by rook013
Summary: In the world of Remnant, darkness exists all around. to combat it, the kingdoms train warriors to combat the darkness. As a new generation of students arrive at Beacon Academy, these young warriors, and their instructors, will be pitted against vicious Grimm and dark plots. Will these young warriors be able to rise to the challenge and become the world's new guardians.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes**

Sup guys and gals...and other peoples who may fall in a different category.

This fic is going to use the RWBY storyline as a basis, with some minor changes, additions, and original adventures for the OCs. The story is starting off in episodes 2 and 3 of season one. I kind of feel like it is short and some may feel that there isn't much going on, but I feel that is normal when you don't blow up corporate princesses. I didn't really see a reason to start throwing my characters into a random series of events where they met either. Just didn't feel right with this group, but I have introduced the OC team to a certain degree, and we'll get more about them as they go through the Emerald Forest. Hope you all like the fic, whenever you're reading this.

Also, let me know what you think of my character's descriptions up to this point, and see if you can figure out the inspirations.

* * *

Chapter 1

As new students were talking about how excited they were to be going to Beacon, on a bench in the airship sat a young man reading a book, mostly ignoring the world around him. While some might assume he was reading some sort of popular novel or something, but he was reading a book about the history and origins of the human/faunus conflict. He had short black hair with the hair coming to a small point at the front. His dark blue eyes were the only bit of color on him, as he wore black pants, a short-sleeved, dark-grey hoodie over a white t-shirt, and black shoes. Every now and then, he glanced around to observe. A tall blonde and a short girl in red were chatting, a blue-haired girl enjoying some music, and a blonde man who looked sick as he ran past. _'I'll give him a week.'_ And he started tuning out the world again as the two girls began yelling about something

The ship finally reached its destination, and the instant the doors opened, the blonde ran out, straight for a trashcan. Damien rolled his eyes as he walked off the ship. An elite school for warriors, and one of his fellow students had motion sickness. _'So long as I'm not on a team with anyone useless like that, I'll be fine. I just have to work hard for four years, improve my skills, and then I can work on my own.'_ As he walked, a man with pale skin and dark hair jogged up next to him. Damien gave the man a side-long glance, noting that he was probably 5'8" or 5'9", compared to his own 6'1".

"Sup. Name's Zaresh, nice to meet you." The man was incredibly friendly, a nice smile on his face as his cat ears twitched a little. Damian's response was brief, his voice expressing no emotion. "Damien. What do you want?" Damian assumed that this Zaresh was trying to be friendly or something, but Damian had no need or interest in such bonds. He figured that he would form some sort of comradarie with his future team, but he didn't want friends.

Zaresh looked at the man like he'd met a lawyer at a courthouse. The feline faunus wore a long-sleeved, purple shirt, with several vertical magenta stripes running along the left side of his shirt and over the shoulder. He has on dark jeans and black converses. In contrast to Damien's cold, dark-blue eyes, Zaresh's were bright aqua and friendly. Zaresh's hair, which went past his ears, was dark-purple, then ends of some being magenta. Despite his harmless appearance, there was something about the man that made Damien cautious of him.

"Not very friendly, are you? We're going to be classmates, so we may as well try to get along sunshine, don't you think?" Zaresh tried to put his hand on Damien's shoulder, and was met with a cold look and being shrugged off. "Fine, I get the picture. No touching." Zaresh was clearly resigned, placing his hands on the back of his head.

They walked in silence for a minute before a loud blast went off behind them. The both looked to see a girl with a long side-tail in white and a girl black, the one in white yelling at the other girl. Zaresh spoke up again, much to Damien's dismay. "Well…that was interesting. Hope that doesn't happen regularly here. But I guess it might be fun-" He stopped speaking as he looked over towards the blue-haired girl with the headphones from the airship. "I'll talk to you later Damien. Try relaxing a little." With that he ran over to the girl, who removed her headphones as they began talking.

* * *

At last, she was at Beacon, an elite school for huntsmen and huntresses. And to top it off, she had spotted the Pyrrha Nikos. Who would have thought that an opportunity to defeat someone like the girl nicknamed the Goddess of Victory would be presented to her on so soon. Definitely not Victoria Brunswick. She had come to Beacon looking for a chance for glory, and it was given to her.

Victoria stopped watching the champion as they entered the auditorium with a large group of students. It seemed as though most of the other freshmen had found their way there, as much of the room was filled up with people. She made sure that nobody was too close to her as she settled in. Some might think that she was the snooty, prim-and-proper type of girl because of her attire. She wore a dark brunswick green ruffled blouse with a deep-crimson knee-length skirt, black leggings, and small black boots that end just above her ankle. She felt no need to complicate moving with heels. She was 5'4" and proud of it! Like her namesake and blouse, her hair is the same dark green and is tied in a French braid and extended to her shoulder blades.

As she waited for the orientation, or whatever this was supposed to be, to begin, she considered talking to someone near her. Sadly, the only people close to her had either formed groups to talk or were an energetic girl with orange hair pestering a silent man with black hair. 'Poor soul.'

After a short wait, the famous headmaster of Beacon, Professor Ozpin, walked onto the stage, accompanied by the equally well-known Professor Goodwitch. Both respectable warriors in their own rights. His speech began innocently enough, stating the base reason why they were all there. Then it took an odd turn, as his speech seemed to imply that they were all lost souls in need of guidance or something like that. 'I don't care who this man thinks he is. I am not some lost fool. I know exactly where I'm going and what I need.' As Ozpin left the stage and Goodwitch gave them their instructions, Victoria's heart sank a little. 'I have to share a space with all of these people? Are there separate sections for men and women?' Victoria got her answer pretty quickly.

As students settled into bed, a myriad of emotions and thoughts prevailed, all around their new lives and the coming day.

* * *

 **Post notes**

Figured people might want a better idea of Victoria's colors, since they might be more difficult to imagine. So here are hexadecimal color codes for them:  
Brunswick green- 14392e/  
Deep crimson- 39141f/


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes**

So a little thing about me. I have a lot of ideas in my head at any given moment to use. I am very creative. That, plus ideas I'd thought about over the holidays and/or as I wrote, makes it easy for me to bust out chapters while I'm not in school or really busy with other stuff. So I may be getting chapters out relatively quickly, especially those based in episodes of the series. Like this one for instance. It may end up being that I get a good amount of chapters out, so long as I read my RWBY fics in moderation, over the next few weeks, then slow down as I go back to school and work. Or making edits as I get more comfortable with the writing and receive more reviews, criticisms, and pieces of advice.

I will probably stop writing once I catch up with the wherever the show is, whenever that is. I currently intend on following the story into whatever Cinder's scheme is and working my people in with that, likely in their own battles. Can't wait til the show gets to a point where I can figure that out.

As always, enjoy my fic, let me know your thoughts, and hail Monty.

* * *

Chapter 2

A the morning began, the new students began their preparations, taking care of hygenic concerns, eating breakfast, and getting their gear ready. Whatever the initiation was, many knew they needed to be ready.

Unfortunately for Damien, Zaresh had managed to find him during breakfast and wouldn't leave him alone. Of course, Damien humored the cat faunus' friendly banter, giving nods, head shakes, or short answers. At one point during breakfast, his eyes met those of a man in a few tables away, who was having his ear chewed off by what seemed to be his girlfriend. For a moment, Damien thought he could sympathize with the man.

The time it took to eat breakfast and get to his locker was the end of it for Damien. He looked at Zaresh coldly. "Don't you need to get your gear ready for the initiation? And not bother me anymore?" Zaresh rolled his eyes. "You really need to lighten up Damien. Nothing wrong with making a friend slash ally. Maybe we'll get teamed up."

 _'A nightmare made real, I'm sure.'_

Zaresh continued, unaware of Damien's thoughts. "And for the first part, I'm ready to go." He pulled his cane out from his belt, twirling it in his hand. It looked like a nice, but simple cane, around three feet long. It had a round, purple stone at the top and the bottom looked like it could separate. As far as Damien could tell, there was nothing special about it. No buttons, no switches, nothing to indicate a transformation. For Damien, he pulled out Twin Shades, which looked about as impressive now that he thought about it. They looked like twin metal rods with a cloth wrapped around for grip, each just over a foot-and-a-half long, though they hid blades almost as long within. He saw the benefits of weapons that could be used at range or up close, or those with impressive transformations or dust capabilities, but simple blades worked best with his style and abilities.

The pair started walking out of the locker room, passing a group of three consisting of Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company, the famous fighter Pyrrha Nikos, and the blonde man that had earned the nickname Vomit Boy.

"I guess you puke once and you get stuck with a nickname." Zaresh made an extravagant mock-gasp. He hadn't thought that Damien could make a joke. True, the black-haired man spoke like he had barely any emotion and wouldn't smile, but it was still a joke…..sort of.

 _'Progress!'_

* * *

If the students wondered what their initiation was going to be, standing at the edge of a cliff over a forest likely filled with grimm probably gave them an idea. They listened to Professor Ozpin's explanation of how the initiation worked, surely feeling different emotions as they learned of the rules.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die. You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Only two students seemed to have questions, as the rest took various stances, readying for the now obvious insertion method. The blond knight asked about how they will get into the forest as the other, a green-haired girl, began screaming as she flew.

Cobolt Resonance had been impressed with Vale since she had arrived from Vacuo. It had taken a lot to convince her family to let her study at Beacon, but eventually, through a lot of studying and good grades, they conceded. She had arrived the day before with a duffle, backpack, and her weapon NightBeat. She had been glad about meeting a social guy before even getting to the school, and having run into him again after the ship landed. She had also met an excitable girl with orange hair during dinner.

Now Cobolt was flying through the air at high speed towards the treeline, having reached the peak of her ascent second ago. But she wasn't concerned. Pressing a few buttons on the side of the white box that was NightBeat, she put her left arm into the forearm slot, gripping the internal handle. The box slowly extended, covering most of her forearm. There were a few buttons and another handle on the left, some lights on most of the other sides, and the main attraction on the front. It looked like a speaker crossed with a scifi laser and some more lights.

As she got closer to the trees, the channeled her semblance into NightBeat, setting it to high-focus mode. Energy built up in the speaker dish before releasing a beam of energy. It hit the tree, blasting through it and impacting a second, which helped to slow her down enough to kick off a tree trunk, landing on a large branch near the top of the tree. She wiped some sweat from her brow before looking to the sky, seeing other students head for the trees.

* * *

Damien didn't want to die here. On the battlefield, sure, but not hitting a tree on his second day at Beacon. He needed to live long enough to succeed in life and spite his former family. But as he neared death, he only had one good idea to get out of this without a lot of pain. And it might kill him. Extending his blades, he held them in a reverse grip, planning on digging them into a tree and hoping his arms weren't ripped off or his blades broken. And moment before impact, a blue blast of energy hit him. It had a lot of force, but didn't do a lot of damage. More importantly, it had cancelled out most of the momentum he had gained from the fall and allowed him to land on a branch halfway to the ground.

Immediately after landing, Damien assumed a low, defensive stance. His side stung from the blast, and he wasn't sure if someone was trying to kill him or help him. He waited a minute, hearing the sound of someone hoping from branch to branch, and it was getting closer.

Damien was ready to attack whatever was coming when he saw his potential rescuer. A girl, around 5'8", landed on a branch a little above his. She had cobolt-blue hair that appeared to be intentionally messy, a pair of purple sunglasses covering her eyes, and tan skin. She wore a blue t-shirt with white stripes going diagonally down her shirt, white pants, and grey boots that went halfway up to her knee. They simply looked at each other for a minute before Damien broke the silence.

"I guess we're stuck together. I'm Damien, you are?" He made an attempt to sound friendly, a bit of lukewarth mixed in with his usual cold.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

After another minute of silence, she hoped down to his branch and began doing various gestures with her hands. It was then that Damien realized his partner was mute.

* * *

 **Post-chapter notes**

I can't can't lie. I am not big on damien's weapons' name. But I can't think of a better name at the moment that makes sense for him and his origins. Maybe I'll figure it out later. I love Cobolt's though. That name came very easily. It'll make more sense as I reveal more about her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's notes**

...Not really too much to say this time.

Um...oh, anyone get their hands on the RWBY fan book from the RT store while they were in stock? Mine should get in within the week.(This will probably be irrelevant to people who see this in the future)

* * *

Chapter 3

' _Just have to focus. This is what you've been training for…...No it isn't! I was not trained for falling from the sky. Not trained for this at all.'_

Victoria reached the peak of her ascent, panicking as she felt herself begin to fall. Despite her training, her fear of great heights caused her to lose her cool. As she began to build up speed, she screamed.

* * *

Shadowy tendrils wrapped around the trunk of a tree as Zaresh flew towards it, allowing him to swing around the tree and onto a branch with extreme precision. The tendrils coming from the top of his cane dissipate as he stretched his arms, looking about for other students or danger. After stretching his arms and legs, he began jumping through the trees, listening for anyone that could be a potential partner, not seeing the eyes glaring at him.

* * *

The adrenaline pumping through her veins, Victoria was able to calm herself enough to form a plan. Revolver in hand, she took in aim at a tree and fired. As the rounds hit their mark, the upper section of the tree begins to fall. Bracing herself, she grunts as she hits the tree, causing it to fall more. She recovers quickly, working through the pain as she jumps off the tree and onto a branch, rolling into a crouch. As the tree she had shot continues down towards the forest floor, Victoria continues to crouch as she makes sure that there were no serious injuries. Aside from a the makings of a bruise on her left arm and soreness coursing through the upper half of her body, there was nothing serious.

After a couple minutes of recovery, she holsters the revolver in the hilt of her sword, the barrel resting within the hilt. The gun's grip compacts as the pommel surrounds the cylinder, essentially extending the grip of her sword, Kisetsunoha. She carefully makes her way down to the forest floor, keeping alert for grimm.

She felt much more comfortable once she reached solid ground, a satisfied smile on her face as she began walking in the direction of the relics. "Okay. All I need to do is find a partner, get the relic, and escape the forest alive. Simple enough. As long as avoid the dangerous grimm, I should be fine." As she walked, she wondered what sort of person her teammate might end up being. Even though she knew that her partner would be a stranger, there were a few people that she wouldn't mind being teamed up with. Pyrrha would make a good partner. She was strong, skilled, smart, and working with her might help Victoria achieve the fame she sought.

* * *

After walking for a while, Victoria heard something running through the forest towards her. Going for her sword, the first thing that came out of the bushes was a man with purple hair and a black shirt. He didn't stop running, instead choosing to yell "Run." Victoria hesitated for a moment, but followed his lead as she heard the sound of pursuing creatures, catching up to him quickly enough. Looking back, she saw a group of beowolves following them. She looked at him, their eyes meeting. She had found her partner, so it was time to see if he was a good fit. She stopped, drawing her sword, a cross between a sabre and a katana, as she stood in front of the approaching beowolves. She remained calm as the wolves got closer, ready to dodge when the moment was right. As one of the wolves reached her, she dodged its claws, slashing across the beowolf's torso as she ran to the side of the pack. And what she saw impressed her.

Her new partner had jumped onto a branch, using a beowolf as a springboard. From there, he fired blasts of dark energy at the grimm, some of whom were trying to get him from below. He hopped form branch to branch, keeping the pack moving around as he whittled their numbers. He moved like an acrobat, easily moving around the trees. At one point, he killed four at once with a larger blast that split into multiple ones. On her end, she dodged the beowolves attacks, striking when she got an opening. He slashes were precise, each either killing or crippling her foes. She didn't need her gun for this, as fighting beowolves was as simple as killing livestock. Despite the number of beowolves that were attacking her, Zaresh's blasts kept them scattered and the number attacking her simultaneously was low.

After minutes of fighting, they managed to kill the grimm. Victoria, who had been doing most of the actual fighting, sheathed her sword before leaning on a tree to catch her breath. They pair had somehow managed to fight off a dozen grimm, and Victoria was thankful that the grimm hadn't emplyed any sort of tactics in their assault, else the fight may have gone differently. As her new partner approached, she gave him a grateful smile, straightening her posture. She spoke in a calm, polite tone. "Though I am a little frustrated at the fact that you led a pack of beowolves to me, I'm more glad that my partner can handle himself in a fight. My name is Victoria. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She finished with a small bow.

Zaresh twirled his cane before giving her an exaggerated bow of his own. "Zaresh. Pleasure to meet you beautiful. Sorry about the grimm. They found me right after I landed and I've been running from them for a bit. I thought I could outrun the original few, but then more showed up and they drove me out of the trees. But I guess I should be grateful that I got a cute, capable girl as a partner." His voice was friendly as always, and he made no effort to hide the flirtatious nature of his words.

Victoria was not amused by his flirting. The smile turned into a slight frown as she sighed in annoyance. _'Just my luck. My partner is a flirt.'_ She began walking in the direction she thought the relics were, her posture a little stiff and cautious. "Just keep your hands off Zaresh. I'm not interested." Zaresh followed close behind. "Don't be like that Victoria. What's a little flirting between friends. Which I'm sure we'll become, since we'll be together for the next few years." He walked as if they were in a forest not filled with vicious creatures.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note**

So this chapter marks my first time writing out a fight scene, and I think it went well. I may come back as I get better at writing fight scenes and edit it a little, but I like it for now. And it's a longer chapter than the one's before it. Will this be the norm? Sometimes, definitely.

Let me know what you think in a review or a private message. I will improve quicker with criticism and like to hear what those of you who have stuck around think of the fic.

* * *

Chapter 4

Victoria looked at the artifacts, chess pieces, thoughtfully, trying to figure out what the trick was with choosing them. She glanced back at Zaresh, who was inspecting the large black feathers sticking out of the ground. When the pair had arrived, they found a circular ruin with chess pieces on pedestals, and the corpse of an ursa minor. It was an odd collection of things, and she could only assume that there had been a fight here, though there weren't many signs of battle, aside from the body and feathers. Zaresh had asked what the feathers could have come from, and Victoria had chosen to tell him to "Figure it out," not wanting to deal with the idiot.

Instead, she had spent the past few minutes thinking about the chess pieces. She was sure there was some sort of trick. Something that made choosing your piece important. As she was lost in thought, Zaresh had grown bored of looking at the feathers and walked over to the pieces. "Let's go with a pawn. Pawns are good pieces." As he said this, he grabbed the piece, looking at it. "Well, I guess we're done. Let's leave. The forest is nice, but I prefer civilization." She simply glared at him. 'Is he stupid? What if choosing the pawn hurts us somehow? We should choose a better piece.' "Don't just take a piece without thinking. What if this impacts our performance somehow? We don't even know what the pieces mean." Her arms were crossed as she continued glaring in annoyance. Zaresh, having been the victim of many glares, simply shrugged. "They didn't tell us anything about it, so there's no point in worrying. Let's just get going." He began walking in the direction of the exit. Victoria had quickly grown tired of the man's nonchalaunce. "How can you be so calm about this? Our decision could impact the next four years of our lives. I should have just le-"

She stopped talking as he held an hand up, his ears twitching. The pair looked at towards the trees to their left, seeing some of the trees shake. The then began to hear a crashing sound, accompanied by more trees shaking. Whatever was causing the trees to shake, it was getting closer.

Out of the trees came two people running, the man in the grey yelling for the blue-haired woman to grab an artifact. She nodded, running for the pedestals as an ursa major burst out of the forest, burns on its right arm and chunks of wood stuck to the spikes on its back. The man rolled to the side as the ursa took a swing at him, narrowly dodging the creature's powerful claws. "Damien!?" Zaresh was genuinely surprised to see the man and his expert dodging. As Damien held off the ursa's attention, the girl had grabbed a chess piece and was running for the exit to the forest. The man started following, jumping off the ursa's arm after another attempted attack.

"I think we should follow their lead Victoria. Let's run." Zaresh gripped his cane as he began to run, Victoria following close behind. Looking back, the pair saw the ursa running after them on all fours. Victoria knew that it was only a matter of time until it caught up to them. She also knew that it wouldn't be easy to kill. After a minute of running, the four warriors-in-training had grouped up as the fled. The black-haired student spoke up. "We won't escape just by running. We should try to kill it or find it something else to fight. Any suggestions? Cobolt and I tried crushing it with a tree, but it didn't slow down."

Zaresh had no idea what to do. His knowledge of fighting grimm was limited. On the other hand, Victoria was fairly knowledgeable about grimm. Ursa majors were hardy beasts, protected by powerful bone plates and spikes. And now the creature was focused on all of them. She wasn't the best when it came to tactics, but she understood that in a 1v4 fight, using your numbers to their fullest was key. "We can use our numbers. Maybe split up to slow it down. Or attack it from range? Zaresh can fire some sort of energy blasts." "I use dust in the cane to generate my shade bolts. They aren't basic energy blasts Victoria."

Damien looked at her for a moment, surprised that he hadn't thought of that. And now that he knew that they had two ranged fighters, he quickly thought of a plan. "Cobolt, Zaresh. Split up and draw its attention. Victoria, stay around the front and be ready to strike." Damien didn't wait for them to respond, turning on a dime and running towards the ursa. Fortunately for him, the two ranged fighters didn't hesitate either, both running to opposite sides of the ursa, shooting it with their respective attacks.

The ursa was momentarily distracted, giving Damien his opening. He ran to the left side, slashing at the ursa's left legs before running 20 feet behind it. The ursa didn't try to respond until Damien was already slashing its hind leg, It turned around, ready to pursue the human that had hurt it as the ranged assault continued. Zaresh kept the top of his cane pointed at the ursa as he fired bolts of shadowy energy at it, hitting different part of the grimm. On Cobolt's side, she slid to a stop and pressed a few buttons on the side of NightBeat. She removed her arm from the weapon as it transformed. The arm slot compacted into the body of the weapon as the firing dish extend out a little. A handle extended from the top towards the back and another from the left side. Holding it closer to her hip, Cobolt fired the weapon, a continuous stream firing from it at the grimm. She focused her shot on the ursa's left side, which was now facing her side of the formation. The ursa momentarily hesitated before rushing Damien, who continued to dodge the ursa's swipes.

Victoria spent moments watching the fight before deciding how she could help. She began running towards the ursa, drawing her revolver and loading a cylinder with an orange stripe. Victoria had noticed that there was a larger marking on its left side and was going to capitalize on it. She fired three shots at its left leg, the bullets exploding on impact. Cobolt took the hint and focused on the leg as well, just as Victoria unloaded another three shots. The ursa, its leg having sustained significant damage, began falling on its left side as the leg gave out from under it. Using its front-left leg for support, the ursa made another swipe at Damien, who easily dodged the crushing arm. Hopping onto its arm, Damien moved onto the ursa's back and plunged both blades into an exposed section of flesh. The ursa roared as it stood back up, only for its right leg to receive two slashes on its right leg from Victoria's blade as she struck and backed away.

As Cobolt continued to blast the grimm's left side, Zaresh moved in closer to help Victoria. Activating his semblance, dark tendrils emerged from under the ursa, wrapping around its legs. "Any day now guys. This isn't exactly easy." A few beads of sweat formed on Zaresh's face as he tried to hold the large beast in place, the ursa attempting to move its legs as it tried to get Damien off its back, releasing a pained roar. Damien had removed his blades and plunged them into another part of the ursa's back, closer to its. But he was having trouble getting his blades back out, holding onto back-spikes in order to avoid the usra's claws and to stabilize himself.

The ursa, immobilized and distracted, was unprepared for Victoria's next attack. She ran at the ursa from behind sword at the ready, reloading her revolver with standard bullets. As she got close, she kicked her foot on the ground, vanishing in a puff of dust and smoke and reappearing in front of the ursa an instant later, as if she had run straight through it. She unloaded her cylinder into the underside of the ursa's head before jumping up, skewering the grimm's head with her sword. She fell to the ground, ungracefully losing her footing the instant she landed, falling onto her butt as the ursa began to fall. Zaresh released the tendrils as the grimm collapsed, almost crushing Victoria who had scrambled out of the way of the dead ursa.

As the body hit the ground, Damien retrieved his blades, looking around at the group. Victoria was clearly exhausted, though as far as he could tell, she hadn't moved around too much. Zaresh was leaning against the ursa as he caught his breath, and even Damien needed a minute to breathe after that. He had fought grimm before, but nothing like an ursa major. Cobolt came out of the whole encounter alright, having not moved around too much during the whole thing. "Must be nice to fight from the back Cobolt." Damien made another joke, though his neutral tone did a poor job of conveying it. Cobolt simply returned a smug grin as her weapon compacted into its base form, which looked like a white box with buttons and a handle at the top.

After a few minutes of rest, the group began making their way out of the forest. Zaresh spent the entire walk talking to Cobolt, which consisted of him talking and then trying to discipher her hand gestures. Victoria made a few attempts to talk to Damien, but his short, disinterested replies led her to not bother with that. She felt bad for whoever ended up on his team. Despite his skill, he seemed like he would be difficult to work with.

Standing on the stage in the auditorium, the four students waited for their turn. To Victoria's slight dismay, she had been teamed up with Damien. It turned out that you are teamed up with the pair that grabs the same piece as you. And Cobolt had simply grabbed the black pawn in her haste. But Victoria was glad that she was teamed up with capable people. As opposed to Team Juniper, who had just been announced and was being led by the blonde who had puked on an airship.(Word travels fast in an auditorium overnight)

After a few more teams were announced, they were called onto the stage. They lined up in front of Professor Ozpin, hands behind their backs. "Damien Monochrol. Victoria Brunswick. Zaresh C. Cithe. Cobolt Resonance. You retrieved the black pawn pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team BZRD.(Pronounced blizzard)

Zaresh and Cobolt shared a fist-bump as Victoria smiled. 'My initial is first? That must mean that I am going to be the leader, right? Maybe this will help me make my name known sooner.'

"Led by… Damien Monochrol."

Victoria was a little disappointed, but not too surprised. Though she landed the killing blow, Damien came up with the vague but effective plan and had placed his own life in peril to allow the others to work. She glanced over at him, catching a brief upward turn of his mouth, gone in an instant. 'I guess you aren't as emotionless as you let on.' Victoria closed her eyes, listening to the crowd's applause as Zaresh tried to congratulate Damien. She hoped that they could try living out normal school lives for a while.

* * *

 **Post-notes**

And at last, they are students!

I had to think about how best to bring them together. At first, I didn't intend to have anything too exciting happen after they got the artifacts. But then I decided that I needed to give them some sort of spotlight, since they are important to the story and not having a big fight scene wouldn't be any fun. Definitely didn't win as gracefully as teams RWBY or JNPR though, which was part of the point.

To help give the you, the readers, and idea of how Cobolt holds NightBeat's second form, imagine the sentinel beam from Halo, but with a side handle instead of one on the back and a top handle. The sentinel beam was part of her weapon's heavy-form inspiration, as it can be a pretty devastating in the game. Plus, lasers are cool.

I do not pity the writers who have to struggle to make team names that follow Monty's 2 rules. I spent a lot of time figuring it out, and had to slightly change a name. For people who want to write RWBY fics with OCs, figure out the team name BEFORE you begin writing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note**

So I guess longer stories are going to happen more often than I thought. Underestimated the power of team bonding and story writing. I just want to thank those who have read up to this point for sticking around. It's nice knowing that some people enjoy what I'm doing...That's what I tell myself, because I don't know if you are all liking it or just want to see where this is going. I prefer to think of the first one.

* * *

Chapter 5

As she sun shone into the room of team BZRD, Victoria slowly woke up, grateful that her roommates hadn't made too much noise. Sitting up, she looked around the room, seeing what her team was doing. After they had been assigned their dorm, the group had moved in, and a race for space began. They had decided to simply unpack all of their things then, agreeing that putting it off would only make things difficult. Cobolt had moved the fastest, setting up her computer and devices on one of the desks, and partially onto the one next to it. Which was hers. Victoria had every intention of speaking to Cobolt about the space. Currently, the mute girl was listening to something on her computer.

Zaresh was laying on his bed doing something on his scroll. The man's desk had various trinkets on it, including a bowler hat. He had also brought plenty of clothes, some of which were pretty nice. Damien, who was missing, had brought books of various sizes and topics, arranged on the bookshelf and his desk. Aside from that, clothes, and a few other things, their leader had brought very little with him. Finally, Victoria's desk contained a few books and journals. She had placed her tools under her bed, since she only needed them when repairing or maintaining weapons. The fact that she had the tools and likely knew how to use them seemed to surprise her team.

Victoria stretched her arms over her head as she got up, her green nightgown resting just above her feet. "Good morning. Where's Damien?" Zaresh looked away from his scroll to answer her. "He left about an hour ago. Said he was going to the library and that he'd meet us in class. You should probably get dressed so we can get going. Don't want to have to fight for seats or something like that." Both he and Cobolt were already wearing their uniforms. "What time is it?" Zaresh looked back at his scroll, a small, playful grim on his face. "Almost time for class. We decided to let you sleep in since you looked so peaceful."

"Very well." Victoria got her clothes and went to their bathroom, turning back to glare at Zaresh. "If you try to peek, I will cut off your ears." He raised his hands in a half-hearted display of submission as she closed the door behind her. After changing, she took the time to braid her hair, a process she took very seriously.

After finishing, Victoria placed her nightgown on the end of her bed, mentally noting that she would need some sort of laundry bin. Placing some of her supplies in a satchel, and almost dragging Cobolt away from her computer, the trio made their way through the dorm. Victoria didn't like the uniforms they had to wear. Not because she suspected Zaresh of being the kind of guy to take advantage of the short skirts. She was wearing tights, and she informed him, multiple times, that if her tried anything, he would wish she would have cut off his ears. She just didn't like wearing skirts that stopped above the knees. Something about them left her feeling exposed. She knew it was irrational, but it was just how she felt.

They arrived at the classroom with time to spare, seeing Damien already sitting in the middle of the far set of seats. The three took their seats next to him, and began waiting for class to begin. Damien seemed content with reading and Victoria pulled out her supplies. Zaresh and Cobolt were looking around the front of the classroom, noting the sketches of grimm, the ridiculous weapon mounted on the wall, and the gold bust of their instructor. The pair giggled as they seemed to make jokes about the professor, who hadn't even done anything yet.

After a couple of minutes, eight students ran through the door and took their seats. And one of the most boring experiences of their lives began.

"Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!"

Professor Port, their Grimm Studies instructor, was a larger man with an ego as large as his jokes were terrible. In the beginning, they team tried to focus on the man's lecture, but their efforts were abandoned very quickly. Victoria, head resting on one of her hands, worked on a sketch of her revolver, drawing various modifications around the picture of the gun. Damien continued to read his book, glancing to the front every now and then. Cobolt's head was also resting on her hand, though the bobbing of her head gave away the fact that she was either asleep or on the way out. Zaresh was the most active of the four, exchanging notes with a guy in the seat in front of his.

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

"I do, sir!" The four, along with others in the class, looked towards the front of the class as Weiss Schnee, clearly the most enthusiastic person in that room. A few minutes later, Weiss was standing across from a cage, wearing a white skirt and armed with some sort of rapier. Out of the four, Damien seemed to be the most interested, followed by Victoria, who was focusing more on the weapon than the heiress. Cobolt's head was resting on the desk and Zaresh appeared to be making some sort of wager with his new friend.

"Allllright!" (next to the cage, pulling out his axe) "Let the match... begin!" Professor Port swung the axe end of his blunderbuss, smashing the lock to the cage. A boarbutusk jumped out, immediately charging at Weiss. As the heiress fought the grimm, and Port threw out annoying lines, Victoria's gaze fell on the girl cheering Weiss on. 'I think her name is Ruby. It must be nice to have such a supportive leader.' She turned to look at Damien, wondering if her would ever be that supportive.

Damien was analyzing Weiss' fight, noting how she moved in case he ever fought her. A classic rule of combat was to know thy enemy, and though the heiress wasn't his enemy, they may fight in the future, so it was best to be prepared. And trying to predict what she would do helped to tune out Port's banter.

He knew that charging the boarbutusk was doomed to fail. Unless you had a heavy weapon and the strength to wield it, going from the front was a bad idea. It seemed to him that Weiss had no clue what she was doing. A Weiss killed the grimm, Damien was less than impressed. Not at her impressive runes, the only known hereditary semblance as far as he was aware. He was unimpressed by her style and attitude. He wouldn't consider himself a nice guy, but he wasn't someone to completely disregard his team. Weiss' leader told her the grimm's weakness, and received no show of gratitude.

With the beast dead, Port released the class with reading assignments. As Zaresh woke Cobolt up and Victoria gathered up her work, Damien watched Weiss storm out of the room. 'What a difficult person to work with.' Team BZRD followed the rest of the class out.

"I'm going to the library. I'll see you all tonight." Damien told them as he began walking away.

"I'm going to explore the school, so I'll catch you guys in a bit." Zaresh did the same, though in a friendlier way.

But as the two started walking, they both froze at the sound of Victoria's annoyance. "Where do you two think you're going? We are going back to our room to talk. Now." Zaresh and Damien both looked at her, ready to argue, but stopped when they saw her glaring at them, arms crossed. Cobolt, who was caught in the middle, simply stood there looking between her teammates. After a few tense moments, Damien and Zaresh's shoulders slumped as they gave in, following her in a silent walk across campus.

When they got back to their room, Victoria sat on Cobolt's bed, looking at her teammates. Cobolt took a seat at her desk, Zaresh on his bed, and Damien at Zaresh's desk. Once her team was seated and paying attention, she exhaled a little before speaking, her tone stern. "Now that we are living with each other, and will be with each other for the next four years, I feel that we should get to know each other a little. So I think we should go around and share a few things that we feel comfortable sharing." Seeing that she still had their attention, she continued, her tone friendlier and full of pride.

"So I am from a larger town to the south of Vale. I am part of a long line of people involved in the protection of humanity, with relatives scattered around the kingdoms. As a result, I have travelled to each of the kingdoms at least once. My father and uncle both build and maintain weapons. My uncle and some of my cousins live here in Vale, helping huntsmen, huntresses, and law enforcement. If any of you need my help with maintaining or improving your equipment, let me know. I don't know how much I can help you Cobolt, but I will happily try." She looked at her teammates, all looking attentively at her. For a moment, she was unsure of how they felt about being forced to do this, until Damien spoke up. "I prefer not to trust others with my gear, but if your weapon is any indication, you know what you're doing. So if I need help, I might take you up on that."

Victoria nodded. "And I will happily assist you. So who wants to go next?" A few seconds passed before Zaresh held his hand up. "I'll go." He stood up, speaking in a casual and friendly manner. "So I come from a small group in the wilds, but I moved to Vale with my cousin when I was ten. We did a lot of odd jobs, mostly around the industrial district for a while. Unfortunately, my cousin died in an accident when I was 14, so I've been fending for myself for the past four years. I went to a normal school in the city before taking the test to get into Beacon. As such, I'm better at fighting people than grimm. I enjoy long walks on the beach, romantic sunsets, nightlife in the city. If you guys want, I will happily take you to some cool clubs." He took a seat, stretching out before laying down. Damien and Victoria clearly didn't care much for the club suggestion, but you could see the excitement in Cobolt's eyes.

The mute girl stood up excitedly and opened her mouth before realizing that the others couldn't hear her. She reached into a box on her desk, pulling out some sort of blue and white device that looked like headphones you wear on your neck. Flipping a switch, an orange light turned on. "Is this working? Oh, sweet." As Cobolt's mouth moved, a voice came out. Albeit, a rough, somewhat-electronic voice, but a voice nonetheless. "So as you know, I'm Cobolt. I come from Vacuo, where I studied my ass off to get into Beacon. I left because I wanted to explore a new place and get away from the Vacuo heat for a while. I'm also an aspiring DJ…though I'm not that good yet." Her excitement seemed to wane as she said this, but she bounced back after a minute. "But anyway, I don't think you guys have figured it out, but my semblance is called Sound. Specifically, I can manipulate manipulate vibrations in the air. So if you guys try talking to me at some point and I don't notice, that may be why. And I would definitely be up for going to a club."

As she finished, Cobolt looked around at her teammates. Damien had his usual, neutral expression, but Zaresh and Victoria were confused and surprised. After a moment of silence, Victoria spoke up. "Um, Cobolt. How are you talking? And if you could talk, why didn't you talk sooner?" If Cobolt said that she just didn't feel like it, or some stupid answer she was coming to suspect out of Zaresh, she might just hit the girl in the head.

"Oh, that." Cobolt pointed at the device on her neck. "A while back after I discovered my semblance, I was messing around and I ruined my voice box, rendering me mute. So I've been working on this device for a little while to allow myself to talk. It would make some things easier, though I won't use it unless I absolutely have tokfmxrn right now. It's a work in progress." Her piece said, Cobolt turned the device off and returned it to her desk.

After the surprise and intrigue passed, the three teammates looked at Damien. He looked at the three before sighing. "I guess I'll go. I've always lived in Vale. After my parents….died a while back, I started living with a family friend. Before coming here, I studied at Signal Academy. I enjoy reading. Nothing really interesting aside from that." He spoke briefly, not bothering with any sort of excess details. "If we're done, I need to go to the library. I'll see you all later." Without waiting for a response, Damien left the room.

"How….How rude! He could have at least waited for us to reply. That man is infuriating!" Victoria no lingered pitied Weiss' team. At least she showed emotions.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note**

HAPPY NEW YEAR! *confetti and fireworks everywhere*

True, it isn't 1/1 anymore, but still.

So here marks another chapter, and the first time I write lines for a canon character, since I've only used quotes up to this point. So if you want, let me know how I did with our favorite female spartan warrior.

* * *

Chapter 6

The sunrise at Beacon was quite lovely. Rising over the horizon, it was perfectly visible from the school, which sat above the city of Vale. The soft light of dawn hit the buildings, giving the appearance of darkness being cast away from the light. Damien wasn't one for aesthetics, but he couldn't deny the beauty of it.

While he was living in Vale or attending Sa. And on the third morning of classes, he enjoyed the view from outside of the training facility. Unlike the rest of his team, he preferred to train early. It was a good way to wake up and it was a good time to get it done, allowing him to focus on homework and casual reading later.

He returned to the workout facility, still having about half-an-hour left in his workout. He then saw someone he hadn't expected. There weren't too many people in the room, which Damien assumed was because people were getting used to their new schedules or because they don't think practically. So spotting the red-haired champion Pyrrha Nikos wasn't difficult. He was used to seeing her on tv wearing her armor being the perfect image of a champion, so the brown t-shirt and red shorts made her look more normal. He was tempted to ask her to spar with him, but thought better of it. She didn't know him, so why would she agree. And she was currently running on a treadmill. He didn't like it when people interrupted his workout, and he gave others the same curtsey.

Despite those considerations, she was using the treadmill next to the one he had been using before his break, and he wasn't done with it yet. After a few minutes of silent running, he gave in and began a conversation.

"Have you been adjusting to the Vale's climate well?" He never claimed to be good with people. He was well-versed in combat, but not in people skills.

Pyrrha looked at him for a second as they continued jogging before responding in a polite, friendly voice. "Yes, thank you. The weather has been very nice, though I haven't been here long enough to know what the weather is like. Have you always lived in Vale?"

From there, the pair spent five minutes chatting about how the weather was in Vale during different seasons, then another ten filled with idle chit-chat, which consisted of her asking him questions, he answered, and she continued the conversation for a minute or two. Damien didn't know what kind of person Pyrrha Nikos would be before talking to her, but she was pretty relaxed and easy to talk to, which worked for him since people skills weren't his forte and she seemed fine with mostly having her questions answered. After they finished on the treadmills, they separated to complete their respective workout regiments.

* * *

Finishing his regiment, Damien looked at Pyrrha across the room before going to the lockers to shower and change into his uniform. He finished quickly, returning to the workout room five minutes later to see Pyrrha still there. Shrugging, he left the room, going to the entrance to the facility, where he took a seat on a bench, opening a book.

After a little while, Pyrrha walked into the entryway, still wearing her work-out clothes a slightly surprised look on her face when she saw Damien. "Did you wait here for me? Why?" Damien could hear a little suspicion in her voice, which made sense. She was probably used to people acting nice to her, so she might think he wanted something. Especially considering he wasn't exactly friendly.

Closing his book, Damien got up. "At the insistence of my team, I am currently working on making more _friends_." He put emphasis on that, indicating he used the term loosely. "So I ended up talking to you. If you are going to come here on mornings regularly, might as well have a gym partner. My team would rather sleep. And perhaps we could spar sometime. So I decided to wait a little while, see if we could walk back to the dorms. And I need to make sure my team gets up for food."

Pyrrha politely covered her mouth as she chuckled. Despite his neutral tone, she could tell he was making an effort to be somewhat friendly. "Of course." They began walking, spending a few minutes in silence before Pyrrha continued the conversation. "I wish that Jaune shared your dedication to training. He does well enough, but he could still improve."

Damien rolled his eyes. "That is being generous if you ask me. From what I've seen, I'm not impressed. But we've only been here a few days. I haven't seen him fight yet, so maybe I'll be surprised."

Pyrrha looked away for a moment. "Yes, well. He is a decent fighter. But he makes up for that with his kind nature and excellent leadership skills. I've seen how friendly your team is, so you must share their good nature." Pyrrha spoke of her leader with confidence, and her assumption about Damien shared much of that, though there was a bit of an inquisitive nature to her words.

"What you've seen is what they've seen. If they wanted a charismatic leader, then Zaresh would be a better fit." He stopped speaking for a moment before realizing she probably didn't know which one that was. "Zaresh is the faunus with purple and pink hair. But as I was saying, I am not good."

"I disagree, but I just met you." As they reached the dorms, Pyrrha was interrupted by a ding sound from Damien's pocket. He pulled out his scroll, looking to see Zaresh had sent him a message. "I'll leave you here. My team is on their way to the cafeteria. Good luck getting your team up. I'll see you around."

The two parted ways, continuing on with their days.

* * *

Over the following week and a half, Damien and Pyrrha ran into each other at the gym a few more times, quickly establishing a routine when they ran into each other. Pyrrha would do much of the talking, with Damien responding and making his own contributions sometimes. He found her to be good company, and she didn't encourage him to be friendlier like the rest of his team did. Well, not as much anyway. And her arguments were based more on reason than their desire for him to seem human.

Damien and his team, minus Cobolt, were having lunch at the end of their second week of class, and the dynamic was what it had become for them when they ate lunch together. Damien was reading a book he'd gotten on sign language and the other two sat across from each other, talking about classes, Zaresh saying how he hoped to fight a certain Schnee heiress or armored bully in during the sparring session. Damien contributed a little every now and then, but mostly focused on his studying.

"There's Cobolt. Oh no. Damien looked up from his book to see Cobolt carrying a tray, followed by Pyrrha and her team. The blue-haired girl was somehow conversing with an orange-haired one without the aid of her device, which she had named the vocal enhancer.

Zaresh continued, a little concern in his whispering voice. "I've heard of her. That girl is supposedly crazy. And crazy strong. I heard that she crushed a deathstalker. What if she- Sup Cobolt. Who are your friends?" He immediately stopped talking about how crazy the girl supposedly was as the group got closer, instead talking to Cobolt as usual. The flirtatious undertone that seemed to exist in Zaresh's every word bugged Damien and Victoria. They weren't even sure if it was real or not. They just hated what they perceived.

The girl switched on her VE. "This is team JNPR, remember. There's Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora." Cobolt pointed to each member as they were introduced. "We have a few classes with them. Their friends on another team have class right now, and I ran into them. I've been friends with Nora since day one, though we haven't hung out too much." Cobolt gestured to the orange-haired girl, whom Damien thought was going to explode from all of her apparent energy. "Well, I can into them on my way here and invited them to eat with us. Since we don't have anyone we eat with regularly, I thought that this would be nice. So here we are."

Cobolt was clearly excited, and everything she had said was true. Victoria was the first to speak up, having adopted the role of team diplomat. "I think that is a wonderful idea. It will be nice to have more company." _'And get to know Pyrrha.'_

Cobolt sat across from Damien, Jaune next to her and Pyrrha next to Damien. Nora and Ren sat next to them. As Pyrrha sat, Damien gave a simple "Pyrrha." She smiled and returned the greeting in kind. Damien knew Victoria was probably staring daggers at him, so he chose to ignore her for the time being.

Damien looked over at Jaune, who seemed to become nervous under Damien's cold, analytical gaze. But before either of them could say anything, Nora started talking.

"Do you all want to hear about the dream I had last night?"

Thus marked the end of Damien's peaceful lunches two days out of the week.

* * *

 **Post-Note**

For the record, Nora is easily one of my favorite characters in the show. She's just so...interesting.

Feel free to review. I want to know what the readers think of my writing.


	7. Where are the chapters? Read for answers

**Important update**

For those of you are reading this and are interested in the story thus far, I am here to explain why there hasn't been and update. I have been working with another user to improve the quality of the chapters that have been posted thus far and those to come. A lot of our work has been working on the characters, working on their individual and team themes to better work with the established canon. Once we are done, the chapters shall be modified to match our changes.

Once we're done, I believe that the story will be the better for it, and the wait shall be very much worth it.

Until then, I hope you have taken an interest in what you have read thus far, and feel free to submit a review of what you think.


	8. Long-Overdue Story Update

**Important update 2: The Long-Overdue Sequel**

So for the few of you that favorite/follow this fic, and those who may see this and think that it is a dead project, YOU ARE WRONG!

The project is not dead, but it is currently on a hiatus for a few reasons:

1) School got busier and couldn't focus as much on writing.

2) Wanted to wait and practice my writing a bit to improve and release something that wasn't garbage.

3)Possibly most inportant The last few episodes of Volume 3.

More into reason 3- So Volume 3 and FANTASTIC. It had drama, death...more death, and glowing eyes. But it led to a creative disagreement of sorts between the guy I was working with and myself about if my fic could still fit in a post-Volume 3 world. There was no drama or argument, simply a view that my fic wouldn't fit in the way I wanted it to, while I thought it would still work. So there was that, but I wasn't discouraged. But I did intend on waiting a while and starting to post a little down the line, and I won't release and post-V3 chapters until after V4 in underway. My intention with the whole project is to stay as true to the canon as I can.

But I will be trying to start posting stuff from this fic and a one-shot I am working on. Hopefully, the revised chapters are better than the originals. Expect small tweaks to everything through the Emerald Forest arc as well as some aesthetic and name alterations.

If anyone who reads this is a decent writer/has been doing this longer than I, I would love to find someone to look at my stuff before I release and give me feedback. IF interested, contact me. Thanks!

But again, first revised chapter up soon, most likely.


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